A. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention refers to fuel purifiers and more particularly to an apparatus for purifying diesel for internal combustion engines.
B. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREVIOUS ART
In the diesel-type internal combustion engines it is always necessary to carry out a purification step for the fuel independently from other filters of the engine and before feeding it to the engine.
The conventional purification process is normally carried out in a cylinder having inlet for impure fuel, an outlet for the purified fuel, and a heating bulb to preheat the impure fuel to reduce its viscosity and separate the solid impurities, to allow the fuel impurities to settle at the bottom of the cylinder to be discharged through a valve located at the bottom thereof and allow that the purified fuel be concentrated in an upper section of the container to be fed through its outlet to the engine.
In order to separate the inlet of impure fuel from the outlet of purified fuel, the most advanced purifiers known by the inventor include a vertical partition wall in the cylinder, defining an admission chamber connected with the inlet and a contiguous purifying chamber connected with the outlet, so that impure fuel may be fed through the inlet to the bottom of the cylinder to be heated therein and allow settlement of the fuel impurities and, as the level of fuel increases in the cylinder, allow the purified fuel to be accumulated in the upper section of the purifying chamber to be fed to the engine through the outlet of the cylinder, as is disclosed by Montemayor in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,907.
These purifiers have the disadvantage that, upon flooding both contiguous chambers, impure fuel will be mixed with purified fuel at the outlet passing directly to the engine because there is no real separation between the inlet and the outlet and this makes difficult the fuel admission in such a reduced chamber.
Trying to overcome the above discussed problems and disadvantages, a pipe connected with the inlet has been introduced into the cylinder, in order that the impure fuel reach directly to the bottom of the cylinder. However, this cause turbulences at the bottom of the cylinder tending to avoid settlement of the fuel impurities.
Furthermore, such purifiers have the drawback that, on discharging the impurities from the cylinder, a vacuum may be created in the cylinder giving rise to failures in the suction side of the feeding pump of the engine, and consequently in the function thereof.
To overcome all such problems and drawbacks in the purifiers of the previous art, the apparatus for purifying fuel, of the present invention, includes a partition wall coupled above the inlet and under the outlet in the container and a hollow body dependently coupled to said partition wall, defining three completely separate chambers, a surrounding one between the container and the hollow body communicated with the inlet, wherein fuel is admitted and forced to the bottom, an inner one in the hollow body, for purifying fuel, and an upper one over the partition wall, in communication with the inner one, preferably through a passage having check valve, to allow the passage of purified fuel floating in the upper part of the inner chamber to the upper chamber and avoid flowback of purified fuel, and which is also connected to the outlet to feed the purified fuel to the engine.
Also, the problem of forming a vacuum at the outlet of fuel is overcome because said check valve avoids any vacuum which could be formed in the lower chamber when the impurities are discharged from the equipment, from passing to the upper chamber.
Furthermore, because of the characteristics of the apparatus of the present invention, duly dimensioned, can be useful for separating fuel from water in cases such as fuel leaks in the ocean.